The Wii U was known for often getting pushed aside or ignored when it came to third party support, and so it goes that although Minecraft: Story Mode came to the console, it only delivered a little over half the episodes in the full season. Nintendo fans of the series were no doubt miffed that they weren’t given the chance to see through the story’s completion, but Telltale Games has fortunately opted to rectify this by bringing Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Adventure to the Switch.

As expected, Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Adventure delivers exactly what it says on the tin; all eight episodes are included here and can be played in any order. Episodes 6-8 are all new to Nintendo platforms — we’ll go over those in a bit — and if you’re looking for reviews of the first five episodes, you can find them here and here. Suffice to say, everything here is presented in a pleasing and easy to navigate fashion, and fans of the series will find plenty to love.

Carrying on in the tradition of Episode 5 — which offered a standalone story — Episode 6 sees Jesse and the gang taking refuge in a creepy mansion from a strangely large group of zombies outside. It turns out that other adventurers — various YouTube stars that make cameos — are much in the same boat, and all have been invited by a mysterious figure known as “The White Pumpkin”. It doesn’t take long for the White Pumpkin to start killing off the characters one by one, and it’s up to Jesse and his friends to find out which of the adventurers is the White Pumpkin and put a stop to their villainous plan.

Given that the episode almost entirely takes place inside the confines of the mansion, it’s relatively low on action sequences and is quite heavy on the dialogue and murder mystery elements. Some might see this as a drawback and others might appreciate the change of pace; we found it to be a breath of fresh air. And while it may be that there’s an air of unimportance to it all — Jesse and the gang really aren’t any closer to getting home after this episode — it still tells an engaging tale that keep you guessing.

Epsiode 7 is yet another standalone episode, and it sees the gang going to another world which has a decidedly more sci-fi feel to it. All the inhabitants of this new world — except for the mysterious new Harper — have been hiveminded by a supercomputer called PAMA, and it’s up to the group to figure out a way to put a stop to it.

This episode largely feels like more of the same, but Harper’s introduction adds an interesting wrinkle to the group dynamic and we see the characters get more development in this episode in a way that wasn’t present in episode 6. It’s a nice payoff, as we’ve seen them grow together and slowly change from a dorky bunch of losers to this dimension hopping group of adventurers. Even so, there’s also a notion that the standalone model adapted by this latter half of the season isn’t nearly as strong as the first half. Sure, there’s still an ongoing conflict with the group searching for a way back to their world, but the one and done approach to these episodes makes it feel as though events from episode to episode aren’t all that important.

Episode 8 wraps up the series with an entry that feels more like the first four episodes, but it nonetheless feels a little anticlimactic. The story follows the gang stopping at one final world before theirs; this one is dominated by Hadrian, a tyrant with connections to Harper who forces the inhabitants of his world to partake in Hunger Games-esque battles for freedom. Naturally, this leads to an action heavy approach and sees a bunch of new characters introduced in the way of other combatants.

This largely works well and keeps the pace moving at a brisk pace, but it does also see the core group get rather sidelined in the process. This is a bit disappointing considering that this is the final episode from the season; a greater focus on the core characters would’ve been appreciated, but even so, at least this episode manages to grab your attention in a way that the previous few couldn’t quite manage.

Conclusion

In short, Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Adventure is a worthwhile ride, though it is a bit inconsistent in terms of the quality of the episodes. If you’re a fan of Minecraft, or just want to try out something that feels halfway between a game and a Netflix show, this is a great game to jump on. Though you likely won’t be replaying it very much, there’s hours of content on offer here the first time through and it certainly justifies the price of admission.

Mitch has been a fan of Nintendo ever since he got his start on the GBA in 2005. When he's not busy playing games or writing, you can find him down at his local MMA training facility learning how to punish the unrighteous.

Overall, I'm a fan of Telltale Games, (and especially Minecraft) and I've been enjoying this on the Switch.

Slightly random to bring up, but I've found the save system to be slightly unreliable. I've had to start and stop at various points in the game, and often I have found that I've had to replay large sections of the game over even though the save icon clearly shows up as having saved my progress.

I don't know if this is a known issue, or something that is just happening to me, but I just wanted to throw that out there.

Being someone who loves the Telltale games and hates Minecraft, can anyone advise me on whether this worth getting?

For me, a large part of the appeal of these games are the characters, whether it be Guybrush Threepwood, Marty McFly, Wallace and Gromit, Bigby Wolf or Lee and Clementine. I am afraid I will not be interested by these characters, particularly as the character visuals (and Minecraft visuals in general) turn me off completely.

@Fuz I'm not a fan of Minecraft either. I've played a lot of the other Telltale games, and I can truthfully tell you that this game has both an interesting story and characters. Give it a go. It's a fun game. It starts out a bit slow though, but by the end of episode 1 it really picks up.

I wanted to pick up story mode for my WiiU, but there was no way I was paying for half a game. The same happened with Sonic 4 on the Wii.
Well, atleast all episodes of Minecraft Story Mode are on the Switch now.

@link3710 It does lag noticeably during some of the more "action heavy" scenes, if that makes sense.

Mind you, I've been playing undocked most of the time. I've noticed it playing docked, but I haven't seen anything that would interfere with the QTE or dialogue options, or player movement.(And I've only finished the first 4 Chapters)

Ok, I played this on my Android phone.
I didn't even care about Minecraft before, after playing this I started downloading all the fake 3DS versions that were out, Terraria, and then eventually the real deal when it finally came to Nintendo platforms.

This Story Mode game is AMAZING.
A 7/10 is disgustingly unfair.
An 8/10 would be the absolute minimum.

It literally showed me a new genre of games and a different way to experience video games.
Please, if you are on the fence, get this, it is really good. Top 5 games I played in 2016 easily.
I am on the fence of rebuying it just to replay it again, but on the Switch.
There are still some endings I never got that I really want to experience.

@samuelvictorI meant Story thing driven whatever something...you know.But not point and click, I played a bunch of those.I mean a game like this, you watch a movie and make decisions pretty much. The point and click stuff in the game definitely felt like the weaker parts, but not completely unnecessary though.But either way, I am sure there are a ton of games "like this one" to catch up on too.Please give me some recommendations.

@MIDP Ah ok... well the only stuff that plays exactly like this is other stuff from Telltale, as far as I know. It's a bit like a modern take on the point and click genre, mixed with a far more laid back version of the early laserdisc/cd-rom FMV games.

The Wolf Among us is really good, Monkey Island is brilliant, Wallace and Gromit is pretty entertaining and I personally enjoyed all of the Sam and Max games, though the later ones are definitely better "games", the writing is great in all of them.

Whether you enjoy The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones ones depends on your enjoyment of the shows, but the writing it top notch. I love all things dinosaurs, but sadly the Jurassic Park episodes are probably the weakest Telltale game in my opinion, I found the writing a bit weak and the characters not engaging by comparison.

@AlternateButtons you mean besides owning the game? Here, enjoy //www.amazon.co.uk/Minecraft-Story-Complete-Adventure-Nintendo/dp/B01NBH7XUU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1504821205&sr=8-5&keywords=minecraft+story+mode@SwitchVogel "Episodes 6-8 are all new to Nintendo platforms" no they are not, you might want to update your article. First paragraph is completely wrong as well

@3dsgeek333 but the physical Wii U version, as well as the digital version as it's sold now, does contain all the episodes,which makes this review factually wrong. And to my amazement it still hasn't been updated. @SwitchVogel?

@Fuz I don't agree on his statement. The original Minecraft game is all about crafting and building in a world, where there's no story of characters to care about. The gameplay in this game is exactly like all the other Telltale games, with some small references to playstyles of the original Minecraft.

I remember telling my girlfriend (after completing chapter 3), that I was so surprised by how much I liked the characters and that it kinda felt like playing a slightly more mature Disney movie. Also, chapter 6 & 7 are probably my favorite ones so far (haven't played the last chapter yet). They are so gritty and mature in their content.

I've played the game in handheld mode for 80 % of the game, and it runs pretty smooth. This is probably the best telltale game I've played, when it comes to framerate